Blog Money Whore

I have really severe allergies and hay fever, rendering me very unhappy in the spring and fall. I used to get desensitization shots, but they’re expensive and a real pain (both literally and figuratively). I’d much rather pop a pill.

As a result, I was really excited when I was invited for BzzAgent’s new campaign for Claritin RediTabs! I’ve already relied on Claritin products for a while now to keep my allergies in check and was really happy to get a free sample and a stack of coupons from them.

What really differentiates RediTabs from other allergy medications aside from the Claritin brand name, which I’ve come to trust, is that RediTabs don’t require water. All you do is stick the pill on your tongue, and it melts. This proves extremely convenient, because water isn’t always readily available, especially if you’re traveling or out in the middle of nowhere when your allergies start acting up.

Anyway, do yourself a favor and visit Claritin’s website to learn more and to get a bunch of coupons!

On a related note, you should also add my iGoogle gadget Local Pollen Count. It reports the latest tree, weed, grass, and mold data in your area along with air quality and pollutants. That way, you always know if you need to take a Claritin RediTab before you go outside—not after you’ve already started suffering.

Are you a budding musician who wants to eat? Then, I have the answer for you!

BzzAgent recently sent me some info about TheTrackShack.com. It’s a music website for both musicians and music lovers.

For the musicians out there, you can upload CDs, songs, or individual tracks for sale. You name your own price and get an 80/20 split. That means you get the majority of the sale rather than some evil record company! The one-time registration fee is only $24.99, and I have a promo code for you, which will give you $10 off the registration fee. It expires on July 1, 2008. The promo code is TTS02142. Just enter it in your shopping cart when you go to TheTrackShack.com.

For the music lovers out there, you can listen to streaming radio stations and look at artists’ pages at TheTrackShack.com. Plus, you can buy CDs or songs from your favorite artists, knowing full well that you’re supporting them rather than gargantuan record companies that don’t actually care about indie artists!

Try it out! I think you’ll like it!

And if you’d like to be in on these BzzCampaigns yourself, then please leave a comment with your email address (don’t worry—your address will remain private) and I’ll send you a referral!

There are tons of services like this, but MyBoneYard.com appears to be very professional and actually does pay a decent amount of money for your items. Everyone has tons of electronic junk lying around after upgrading to new computers and phones, and they are willing to pay you money to recycle them!

Of course, you probably won’t get as much as just selling it yourself on eBay or Craigslist, but who has the time for that? I’m strongly considering recycling my old Motorola SLVR L7 through them, as I actually wouldn’t get all that much more on eBay after fees. In exchange, they send a prepaid Visa card loaded with money. That’s not too shabby!

Update (3/1/08): I did end up sending my Motorola SLVR L7 to them. In exchange, they’re sending me a $35 Visa gift card. To avoid the hassle of selling a somewhat scratched phone that I modded a bit on eBay, it seemed worth it to me. The gift card should arrive sometime this week. I can’t wait!

The latest BzzCampaign that I’ve joined is High Liner Captain’s Cut, which is a line of microwaveable frozen seafood. Now, frozen foods tend to be preferred by gourmands rather than gourmets, but when it comes to seafood, frozen is oftentimes actually fresher. In fact, I usually buy shrimp frozen. I remember watching a Ming Tsai TV episode where he visited some sort of seafood processing plant, and this little tidbit came up.

Captain’s Cut isn’t bad at all. The product I decided to try was the Salmon Lemon Dill. The cooking directions are simple to follow, and there’s little mess. After about 7 minutes in the microwave, there’s a decently tasty fish fillet to eat. Add a couple of simple sides like carrots or broccoli, and you have a healthy meal in no time! Plus, you can have some variety with six different products to choose from, though I could only find two of them at my local grocery store. The price also isn’t bad. It appears to cost $6.99. Considering a fillet of fish plus ingredients for sauce would cost that much anyway, I sure don’t mind buying it in a box. Plus, it fits much better into my busy lifestyle.

My only concern is that the fish is farm raised. However, that concern is alleviated by the fact that it’s a product of Canada. As far as I know, there are no reported health problems stemming from Canadian farmed fish. It’s certainly nothing like that recent NY Times article about Chinese fish farming.

Anyway, I think this is a decent product, and I’d buy it again. My main gripe is that the supermarket only has two of the products, but maybe they’ll expand the selection once they see that people are buying it.

If you cannot afford being on your regular cruises for this year, it is not a problem. You can get cheap flights and arrange stay at an economical travel lodge. For travelling inside the city, you can use car rental.

Jott is one of the cooler sites that I’ve found via the BzzAgent Frogpond. What the site does is convert your voice to text for free. That means that you can do stuff like send text messages, email quick notes to yourself, etc. all without having to deal with the tiny keys on cell phones. Even if you have a Blackberry or other smart phone with a full keyboard, this can be extremely useful. You know your thumbs can really hurt after using them for a while! Sometimes, it’s just easier and better to talk and let a machine take care of the dictation.

Something else that’s nice is both Twitter and Zillow work with Jott! You can have messages automatically posted to Twitter via voice to text or get Zestimates on your wireless device. Very cool! Jott works with thirteen popular sites and is planning compatibility with many more in the near future.

I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Don’t forget it’s free!!!